Village website information
The village website was launched in October 2007, 5 months after the Parish Council agreed to sponsor its creation in accordance with the Parish Action Plan.
A website had been listed by the Parish Plan Committee in the Longstanton Parish Plan 2005-2015 that was approved by the Parish Council. As a Parish Councillor, back in 2007, I volunteered to create it, researching, selecting and compiling its content over a few months in a bid to improve gaps in communication and information that the Parish Plan survey of 2004 indicated between the community and the Parish Council, and to contribute to the overall quality and reach of the Council's work.
From the technical angle, this bespoke website was designed and developed by a young professional programmer with ties to the village and who devises programmes suitable to whole communities, Lee Theobald of Waterbeach - e-mail: Lee [at] LTheobald [dot] co [dot] uk
Lee's professional service was funded by the Parish Council's Parish Plan budget. I followed Lee's advice in selecting a clear, uncluttered scheme of minimal soft colours on a white background and a uniformly recognizable format throughout to make the community website easily readable to all in the community - young and old or visually impaired, and to keep its pages identifiable while surfing other links. I took most of the photos and since this is an information website, no copyright is attached to the compilation itself. This is not a commercial website, neither does it function as an opinion forum. To advertise a business complete with logos or to submit personal view points and articles, you need to address yourself to the village magazine, The Longstanton Life, longstantonlife [at] hotmail [dot] com .
Main aims were to provide the following, for the sole benefit of the community:
• A guide to all public services, to all educational services, and others such as the five day weather forecast.
• A centralised information point about Longstanton clubs, organisations, societies, associations, charities, groups, churches and religious congregations and the Village Institute, with their own web links where this applies. There is still a lot of essential information and links that village groups could forward to make their individual pages an instant source of interesting information about our village.
• A community calendar;.
• Clear information about the Parish Council's, the District Council's and the County Council's remits and responsibilities to the community as well as a listing of the elected councillors and of the Parish Clerk.
• The online regular publication of the Parish Council's meeting agenda, approved minutes, annual meeting report, annual budget and annual precept.
• The online publication of the Parish Plan technical report, of the summary report that includes photos, diagrams and a brief history of the village and the airfield, and of the Action Plan 2005-2015.
• The Parish Council's adopted policies, their proposed representation on behalf of the community are also being published here as well as the occasional invitations by the Parish Council, the District Council or the County Council to the residents to participate in democratic consultations.
• An online archive of the village magazine, the Longstanton Life.
• A free basic listing of Longstanton based businesses.
• A front page to advertise at a glance upcoming village events and major community news.
• Basic information about the major ongoing development of Home Farm and that of the future Northstowe.
I hope that these aims have been largely addressed. Please do contribute to improving the content of your village community website: e-mail me at webmaster [at] longstantonvillage [dot] org
The Parish Council is responsible for the yearly renewal of the longstantonvillage.org domain name and has voted to retain the site under its umbrella.
Françoise Close (Parish Plan Secretary, Parish Councillor 2006-2012)